The OneNote Hierarchy

If you are not a current or frequent OneNote user, it is important for you to become familiar with its structure. OneNote is comprised of three main hierarchical levels: notebooks, sections, and pages. You can think of it just like a physical, multi-subject, spiral notebook.

Notebooks are the main files for OneNote that hold all pieces inside. You may create separate notebooks for items like Work, School, or Home.

Sections are the dividers in the notebooks and the next levels in the hierarchy. You might label them like in a College notebook as Chemistry, Psychology, and Math for each of your classes.

Pages are within the sections as the notes, lists, and planners. Using College as an example again, your Psychology section may include pages for Lecture Notes, Study Questions, and Homework Assignments.

Section Group Uses

We’ll use our College notebook example first. You have sections labeled for each class. But, what if you want to group those classes by semester or term? Using Section Groups, you can create a group called Semester 1 and then move those class sections into the group.

Then when your next term comes up, create another Section Group called Semester 2 and add the classes as sections inside of it.

For work, you may have a notebook called Work Projects. You could create Section Groups for IT Projects, Customer Service Projects, and Client Management Projects. Then inside of IT Projects have sections for Website Redesign, New System, and Client Conversions.

The Section Groups feature is a useful way to organize within your notebook and sections. And it can save you from having to create separate notebooks for topics that belong together.

Set Up a Section Group

You can create a Section Group very easily. Right-click your mouse on the Tab bar and select New Section Group and give it a name. If you already have sections created, you can just drag them to the new Section Group. If not, click the group and add sections within it.

When you are within a Section Group and want to go back (up) a level, just click the green arrow.

Select and Apply Tags

On the Home tab, you will see the section called Tags in your ribbon. When you click the arrow in the Tags box, you can view a complete list of the built-in options. From simple prioritization to follow-ups to ideas, books, and movies, you can choose from a nice selection.

To use a tag, navigate to the page where you want it applied, and just click it from the Tags list. Along with a matching icon for easy viewing at a glance, you can pop text into the tag. So for the tag Web site to visit, you can enter www.makeuseof.com or for Movie to see, you can enter Gone with the Wind.

Find Tagged Pages

After you have tags set up, you can search for them by clicking Find Tags in the Tags section of your ribbon. This will open a Tags Summary with all of your tags, plus a grouping option for simple sorting. You can click any tag to be taken directly to the page.

Try Multiple Tags

You can add more than one tag to a page and nest tags as well. So if you have a checklist of to-do items, you might use separate tags for Project A, Project B, and Schedule meeting. But you can also use Project A, Schedule meeting, and Discuss with management all in one. This allows you to search for the tags as a group and separately too.

To add these nested tags, place your cursor inside the original tag and just select the additional tag from the list. You will then see that tag’s icon pop in next to the rest.

To modify the current tags or create a new one, just select Customize tags from the bottom of either the Tags list or the Tags Summary.

But another organizational feature that is super handy is linking notebooks, sections, and pages to each other within OneNote. You might not realize how convenient this can be and just how easy it is to do.

Link Uses

Back to the College notebook example, you can use this feature for referencing material. Maybe you would like to link notes from a previous project section to a new one for the same class. Or perhaps you want to connect a homework assignment page to your to-do list.

For work, you could link a Schedule meeting tag to a meeting agenda page. Or you might link meeting notes to a new page you plan to create for a project overview.

Choose and Apply Links

To link notebooks, sections, and pages, begin by selecting the text on the page you want to connect. Then, either click Link from the ribbon on the Insert tab or right-click the selected text and choose Link from the context menu.

The Link pop-up box will appear and you can then choose the notebook, expand one to the section, or go a step further to select a page. You can also create a new page, link to a website, or connect to a file on your computer from within this box.

When you are finished, click OK and you’re set. You can also follow these same steps to edit a link if needed.

Additional Ways to Organize

With Section Groups, Tags, and Links, you can get off to a terrific start with OneNote. In addition, here are even more features that can help you stay well-organized.

Color-code notebooks and sections for seeing what you need at a glance.

With her BS in Information Technology, Sandy worked for many years in the IT industry as a Project Manager, Department Manager, and PMO Lead. She then decided to follow her dream and now writes about technology full-time.